Anto Upton eases to victory in Ginley Promotions headline fight

Anto Upton topped the bill tonight in Belfast and scored a one-sided win on the inaugural Ginley Promotions bill.

The Belfast light welterweight took on Latvian Zaurs Sadihovs at the Devenish Complex and scored a wide points win.

In what was his first fight under new trainer Barry Smith, Upton was in cruise control throughout against an excessively negative opponent.

Upton became confidently, switch-hitting against his cagey baltic foe.

Fighting mainly as a southpaw from the second stanza onwards, the youngest of the boxing brothers began to put more meat on his punches, going to the body of Sadihovs well.

By the third his opponent had shrunk into a defensive shell, throwing little of note and looking to spoil whenever possible.

Upton stuck to his task and upped the work rate in the fourth, mixing in some nice uppercuts to his work.

The fifth saw the Belfast man begin to force his opponents to the corners where he landed hurtful-looking punches, and staggering Sadihovs once.

The Latvian managed to grab hold in the final round to see out the fight, as Upton pushed for the stoppage his approach probably deserved.

WIth the six rounds in the bag, Upton was award a 60:54 win on the referee’s scorecard.

The win sees Upton improve his ledger to 14(5)-1(0), while Sadihovs drops to 4(4)-15(4).

The rust-shaking run-out in the bag, Upton will now look to get back into the domestic title mix, potentially for the English belt he vacated at the end of last year.